Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 27 November 2002
Parliamentary Record 9
Debates for 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005
2002-11-27
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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DEBATES - Wednesday 27 November 2002 have to go about our business and show the terrorists that whatever horrific actions they take to strike out at us that as a community, we are strong. And so it was on the very next day, 21 October, that I had the honour of representing the Minister for Education, Employment and Training, the Honourable Syd Stirling, at the WorldSkills Competitors Function at Parliament House. I was presenting scarves to the women and ties to the men, who were aged in their late teens and early 20s, who were going off to compete at the National WorldSkills Competition in Newcastle. They were a nice group of young Territorians and very excited about this opportunity to compete at a national level. As one does in these situations, I made a very encouraging speech to them and said to them, You are the creme of the Territory. Go down there knowing that you are as good as anyone else in the nation, and bless them, they came back as national winners when they took out the national competition for the first time. It truly was a team effort and they all excelled. They had every reason to be very proud of their effort. I will single out the gold medal winner in construction, Rafael Kammas from Dripstone High School; the gold medal winner in business education was Colleen McAlpine from Casuarina Senior College; and from my very own electorate, the bronze medal winner in information technology, Liam Kuhl from OLoughlin College. I know Liams parents very well; his mother is a teachers assistant in my daughters class. So it was a particular joy, and I was very proud, to congratulate Liam. In the open competition as an apprentice, Kelly Smith won silver in Business Services. They are a very amazing mix of talented young Temtorians, and it just goes to show that we can produce the best in the nation with our vocational education and training, and apprenticeship and trade training. Again, I congratulate our winners. On 22 October, I attended the Womens Health Day at the Greek Orthodox School. This was the 6th annual health day, and it is used as a forum to provide health information to women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. There were women there from many nations - Filipino, Thai, Greek, Indonesian, Cambodian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Timorese, and Indian. It was a very large gathering of about 60 women. There were representatives of all the non-government sector health-based organisations, as well as the government Health Department sections. This day was organised by the Northern Territory Womens Cancer Prevention Program. I say a special congratulation to Beth Amega and Mahasti Farshidi for putting a tremendous event together, as they did. On 25 October, I again represented the Minister for Employment, Education and Training, at the Discovering Democracy Week awards in Parliament House. There were many participants who received certificates of merit and book vouchers. Winners of each category received achievement awards and cheques. I make special mention that the Katherine School of the Air won the national Discovering Democracy Award for the second year running. The Territory can be very proud of the Katherine School of the Air and the great effort they all make. As the member for Karama, I congratulate Jeannie Bennett, from Manunda Terrace Primary School, for winning a certificate of merit. Also on the same day, I had the opportunity to duck into Malak School in my electorate, because they were having a Moovin @ Malak fundraising event. That event was a day of different activities in the school ground. The curriculum for the day was suspended and the children were encouraged to go out and be physical with a variety of activities from hockey, basketball, and rock climbing. I heard that they had a great water fight in the middle of the day as a means of cooling themselves down. That fundraising event raised a total of $3462 for the school. I congratulate the principal and the staff, the parents and the teachers, and all the people I saw really get behind that fundraising event in a great way. The top ten fundraisers were presented with trophies donated by me, and they were: Dannille Edwards, Jennifer Mu, Tianna Beale, Katelyn Mitchell, Davina Lay, Dillion Morris, Kiry McKenzie, Kalvin Kaltenbach, Alexander Moore, and Kimberley Devery. I also presented medals to other good fundraisers who were: Villin Phinitkittikhun, Jessica Marris, Angela Carter-Ritter, Daniel Acklin, Lindsay Wilson, Angie Ng, Freddie Nona, Chloe Crozier, Justin Moore, Kylie Gaykamangu, and Arkanay Saengurit. In the local school community, I attended the launch of the Catholic schools Shaping Our Future: Towards 2007 strategic plan. This launch occurred at the Catholic school in my electorate, Holy Family School, which is the school that my children attend. I felt very pleased to be, essentially, right at home amongst the Catholic community there, participating in the launch of their strategic plan. I congratulate the Catholic Education Office for all the hard work that they have done in creating the plan. I congratulate the principals, the parents and the teachers of the Catholic education community here in the Northern Territory, for putting in the hard work. The very wonderful Bishop Ted Collins was there to launch the plan. The Minister for Education, Employment and Training, our Hon Syd Stirling, was there to assist with the launch of the plan. 3113